In short .. cousin bought a RRS today... MOT expired yesterday on tyres. He had it booked in today to get new tyres and retest closer to home as car was bought miles away.

Now .. from what i know because he pre-booked test he was insured to drive to the MOT centre.

BUT .. due to traffic etc .. he got tyres done, but MOT centre was closed.

Someone has told him that he has 10 days to sort car tyres out and can use the car normally in the meantime, but as far as i was aware - if he drives the car normally he will be driving without insurance and could get into trouble with the law as the MOT is expired and having a failed test even if its only for tyres still doesn't allow him to drive it.

I run an MOT centre and will only echo what had been said above. He is only legal to drive the most direct route to and from the test centre on a pre-booked test. On the computerised system, the moment a failure had been issued it overrules everything even if there was any MOT left.

Oli, off the subject somewhat, but has your centre ever failed a car with illegal HID headlights (i.e. a retrofit without self-levelling and headlamp washers)? I know the rules have tightened on this but wondered what the practical upshot was and if some testers would even be able to spot the difference...

I run an MOT centre and will only echo what had been said above. He is only legal to drive the most direct route to and from the test centre on a pre-booked test. On the computerised system, the moment a failure had been issued it overrules everything even if there was any MOT left.

HTH

But when the vehicle fails some centres offer a free retest within 10days.

You can't insure a car without an MOT. Anyway, I think the problem is that he has insurance and tax but the insurance isn't valid for driving around until he gets the car retested and passed. It would only be valid for driving to or from a pre booked test.

In my previous BMW, over the last 4 years, I would drive around for months without a valid MOT believing that other than the required safety check aspect, you just needed it to do an online road tax purchase.
So for example, if my MOT was due January, I would purchase road tax for 6/12 months in December because it would be approved. I would think nothing of it until the next time I would need road tax because then I wouldn't be approved with an expired MOT of 6/12 months.
I was never informed otherwise until very recently whilst refreshing my knowledge on the subject. Now, I've gone back and informed everyone who I gave wrong advice too about it.
What was more interesting, within those four years. I may have been stopped by police 5 times for what ever excuse they wanted to use. My details were always checked but not once was expired MOT mentioned... Maybe I was lucky. I don't know.